http://vincylou.com/blog Movies, Music, Books, and Work - My life in comments Sat, 14 Nov 2009 22:37:51 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en [caption id="attachment_161" align="alignleft" width="106" caption="The Book of Basketball by Bill Simmons"][/caption] Bill Simmons, AKA The Sports Guy, is obsessed with basketball. As Malcolm Gladwell points out in his forward to Simmons' mammoth Book of Basketball, Simmons is one of the few people in America who can afford to follow sports so ... http://vincylou.com/blog/2009/11/12/the-book-of-basketball-by-bill-simmons/ [caption id="attachment_145" align="alignleft" width="144" caption="Terminator Salvation"][/caption] I wanted to cry 'Mercy' several times while watching Terminator Salvation, the latest installment in a franchise that opened with one of the most innovative action movies ever made; followed with a film that redefined the boundaries of special effects with the liquid metal T-1000, ... http://vincylou.com/blog/2009/11/10/terminator-salvation/ [caption id="attachment_126" align="alignleft" width="160" caption="Moon"][/caption] I never like to say that I prefer one movie genre to another (when asked what types of movies I like, I usually say good ones. Glib, perhaps, but true), but good Science Fiction movies are the rarest of all new releases. A new horror film ... http://vincylou.com/blog/2009/11/05/moon/ [caption id="attachment_103" align="alignleft" width="144" caption="Waltz With Bashir"][/caption] Waltz with Bashir is the first movie I have seen that centres on the 1983 massacre in the Sabra and Shatila Palestine refugee camps, which was one of the darkest days of the The Lebanon War. The massacre was an act of revenge in ... http://vincylou.com/blog/2009/10/30/waltz-with-bashir/ [caption id="attachment_86" align="alignleft" width="106" caption="The Bin Ladens"][/caption] Around 5 years after 9/11, I started to become interested in the factors that led to that infamous day, easily the defining world event of my life and a turning point in the escalating clash between Eastern and Western Civilization. In the first few ... http://vincylou.com/blog/2009/10/28/the-bin-ladens-by-steve-coll/ When I was growing up in the 80s and early 90s, Heavy Metal music, for me, was about youthful rebellion. For others, perhaps, it symbolized an outright rejection of society. Attacked in the media for inciting, amongst other events, the Columbine Massacre, Heavy Metal was the scourge of many ... http://vincylou.com/blog/2009/10/27/metallica-concert-air-canada-centre-october-26-09/ I began my summer movie season with a double feature, Wolverine and Star Trek, which I imagine cost Hollywood around $300 million to produce, market, and distribute and provided me with about $1.50 in entertainment. Both movies had lazy scripts, lavish effects, and loud noises, and so I am happy ... http://vincylou.com/blog/2009/10/26/summer-2009-at-the-movies/ Following months of hype and a studio battle over distribution rights, The Watchmen have arrived, and to my pleasant surprise, I am very happy that they have. After seeing director Zack Snyder’s visually stunning but ultimately brainless 300, I had little enthusiasm for his next directorial effort, but The Watchmen ... http://vincylou.com/blog/2009/10/26/the-watchmen/ A movie like The Visitor is a shining example of the importance of Arts and Culture, which helps us to avoid seeing issues in black and white - in this case, America’s immigration policy. Politicians often focus on this issue because a strong stand against illegal aliens can help them ... http://vincylou.com/blog/2009/10/26/the-visitor/ Ron Howard has made a career directing good and very good movies. Frost/Nixon falls into the Very Good category. Anchored by a fine performance from Frank Langella as Richard Nixon and using source material from the Broadway play of the same name, the movie looks at a series of TV ... http://vincylou.com/blog/2009/10/26/frostnixon/